Ontario’s environmental commissioner says the province’s zero-waste strategy looks good on paper, but by itself won’t be enough to completely eliminate garbage.

Dianne Saxe says the long-term strategy sets Ontario on the right path, but is lacking any actual dates for its targets.

Ontario generates nearly 12 million tonnes of waste a year — more than 850 kilograms per person — and only recycles about a quarter of that amount.

That rate hasn’t changed in more than a decade, but the Liberal government has introduced a waste-free strategy that aims to divert 100 per cent of waste away from landfills by creating a “circular economy,” where waste is considered a resource that can be recovered, reused and reintegrated.

Saxe says the first steps should be to get all food waste out of landfills and to crack down on businesses and institutions, who only recycle 15 per cent of their waste.

She says it is also important to make sure products are high value, because it still generally is cheaper to buy new items, use them briefly and throw them away, rather than using resources over and over.